Monday, February 6, 2012

Playing in Quinoa

My view on the Friday drive home from work.

Weekend Update: It was such a nice weekend in the city. 60 degrees in January. Man I love the south.

We watched the last 3
episodes of “The Kennedy’s” this weekend, and they were the best ones in my
opinion. We’re more fascinated than ever, but wish there were more! Not sure
what we’re going to do with ourselves this week. If you have Netflix, WATCH IT.

When I wasn’t mourning with the
Kennedy’s, I was stepping away fromlast week's chilileftovers and eating out! I had some great GF food in Atlanta
this weekend. I always get excited when a restaurant has a gluten-free menu,
but the one at Pozole was all
pretty and nicely bound as opposed to the usual sheet of paper GF menu (not
that I’m against paper menus… any GF menu is better than none). We also had a
great lady group brunch at The Shed at Glenwood with a plethora of options for this girl. No special menu
needed. Oh, and bottomless Mimosas were pretty exciting too.

So if you remember from our meal plan from last week, there was mention of Quinoa Burgers. First of all, Chris introduced
me to quinoa last fall, and
it’s been a staple in our house ever since. If you’re like me, you’ve seen the
word, but don’t know how to pronounce it. It’s ok, I didn’t either (which is
probably why I never tried it). One day, I heard someone say it on the Today
show, thank goodness. Don’t be embarrassed. It’s pronounced KEEN-WAH. It’s
great because it is high in protein, so it keeps you full, and it also has
amino acids, which rice lacks. So basically, it’s a yummy, healthy, rice
alternative. Best part: you can get a big box of it at Trader Joe’s for super
cheap. Around $2 I think.

Sometimes we get a wild hair or two and
decide to experiment with a new recipe. We usually find them on Pinterest (I have a gluten-free board,duh), and it’s usually when I’m hungry. Good food photography is what
initially entices me (something we’re working on for my blog), but the deciding
factors are the ingredients and the directions. If we don’t already have ¾ of
the ingredients, we probably won’t make it unless what we need to buy is on
sale/cheap. If the directions are long, require a mixer, use words we don’t
know, or involve an insane amount of prep time (WHY don’t we have a live-in sous
chef?), I run screaming.

I’ve seen TONS of quinoa recipes on
Pinterest and foodgawker.com. Kind of like Forrest Gump’s (my all-time favorite
movie) shrimp, quinoa can be turned in to endless varieties of dishes from
soups to patties to salads. For our first quinoa experiment, we went with a “burger”or “patty” recipe we came across on Pinterest. We modified it a little, but
I liked this recipe because it was one of those dump, mix, and go recipes that
was hard to mess up. I had way too much fun mixing everything together as
you’ll see in the pictures.

Heat a frying pan and a couple teaspoons olive
oil over medium-low heat. Mixture will be slightly sticky, so using a 1/4 cup
measuring cup, drop mixture into pan and lightly flatten to 1/2 inch
thick.

Fry until golden-brown, about 4 minutes on each side. Some took
longer than 4 minutes because we preferred them to be crispy. Makes approx. 10
burgers.

They turned out pretty good, and maybe better
the 2nd day. They remind me of potato pancakes. We paired them with
some green peas and fries. And of course 2 buck chuck.

Overall, our quinoa
experiment was a success. I don’t know if this will be a regular menu item at
our house, but it was a fun switch-up. Shout-out to my girl Chris, for being my right-hand lady and flipping some mean patties. I’m sure we’ll have some more quinoa fun
soon.

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About Me

24 and doing my thing. With this blog, I plan to support, inspire, and document my journey through life as a gluten-free non-cook. I have days where I’m tempted beyond belief, I have days where I can’t for the life of me decide what I want to eat, and I have days when I can’t get enough, so stay tuned!